Coventry has received £700,000 to boost training for the next generation of family doctors.

It means the city, which is short of about 17 GPs, will be able to offer more places for GP registrars.

Doctors who train in a location often end up taking permanent jobs there, so the hope is GP trainees will accept placements and then remain in the city when they are fully qualified.

Practices will benefit in the short term from having an extra pair of hands while the registrar will gain valuable firsthand experience of a surgery environment.

The money forms part of £4.4 million bid from the government by the West Midlands Deanery, which is responsible for doctor training.

Stephen Kelly, director of postgraduate general practice education at the deanery, said: "Since 2000 we have managed to increase the number of GP registrars in the West Midlands by more than 65 per cent.

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"However surgeries across the region have vacancies for hundreds of GPs. With doctors retiring and plans to increase the time GP registrars spend within a practice the need for new training place-ments and training practices is critical."

In Coventry the money has been used to increase the number of training practices and new registrar placements within the inner city area.

Chace Avenue surgery in Willenhall, one of the practices to benefit, has won quality awards and two Charter Marks but has not been able to operate as a training practice because of a lack of resources and space.

The surgery is currently attaining training status and extension work to house an additional consulting room is being completed.

Peter Hodder, director of primary care for Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust said: "Locally, there is a lot of effort going into getting the extra doctors, nurses and other professional staff into Coventry that we need.

"This is a really important part of our plans to improve local health services."